Members of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland have raised concerns over the recent appointment of Worcester County State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby to fill an open slot on the bench in Circuit Court, according to a published report.

Black Caucus members did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Daily Times.

Oglesby was appointed Dec. 28 by Gov. Larry Hogan to fill one of two seats left vacant following the retirements of Judges Thomas C. Groton III and Richard R. Bloxom last year. He and Mary Kent, who was named to fill the other vacancy, are expected to be sworn in later this month.

A spokeswoman for Hogan said that the governor still approves of his selection of Oglesby.

Oglesby’s connection to a 2016 discrimination lawsuit filed by a former Pocomoke City police officer and his alleged use of a racial epithet in 2014 has angered some caucus members, according to the Post story.

He later issued a statement that the N-word was “read verbatim with no inflection”
from a letter that was part of the evidence the state’s attorney planned to introduce as evidence in a criminal trial. The letter was read in front of several law enforcement officers, some of whom were black.

Oglesby was named individually in a lawsuit filed two years ago by three black Pocomoke City police officers. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, named as defendants the city manager, mayor, the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office, the State’s Attorney’s Office and the Maryland State Police.

Shareese DeLeaver-Churchill, a spokesman for Hogan, said the governor stood by his appointment of Oglesby to the Circuit Court.

"A federal judge has dismissed the charges specific to Mr. Oglesby in the case," she said. "The Judicial Nominating Commission, which is responsible for vetting potential judges, approved and recommended this candidate, and he has the nearly unanimous support of elected officials from both parties on the Eastern Shore, as well as bipartisan support from prosecutors and law enforcement officials across the state."

Numerous notable officials from across the state wrote letters of support for this appointment, including Emmett Davitt, a state prosecutor, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, Frederick County State’s Attorney J. Charles Smith III, Administrative Judge for Caroline County Jonathan G. Newell, and John Dale Smack III, former Worcester County Orphan’s Court chief judge and parole commissioner, she said.

Oglesby declined comment, according to a spokesman for the Worcester County State's Attorney's Office.